Weekly ForceCast: March 2, 2012
This week: Star Wars at the Oscars, George reminds us "it's just a movie," and The Phantom Menace officially grosses a billion dollars. Plus, Billy Dee stays cool in the face of TMZ, Tina Fey busts out the Cantina theme, and much more--only on your Weekly ForceCast. '' Guests *Guests go here. Topics *Jason tells Jimmy that he now has another justification for buying his Blu-ray player: the complete Indiana Jones quadrilogy Blu-ray set was just announced. *"He's in the house, and I'm not talking about GL," Jimmy says of his new Ben Quadinaros action figure. Jimmy talks about how the campaign to bring Ben Q. to a Hasbro Vintage Collection card started with Kyle Newman on The ForceCast. "It looks really cool," Jimmy says of the packaging, "But not cool enough for me to keep it on the card." As Jason listens, Jimmy rips open the action figure bubble and removes the Quadinaros figure. He then places the figure on his soundboard where it can stare at him throughout the rest of the show **Even though he was happy to find the Quadinaros figure, Jimmy expresses disappointment at the lack of a Kitster and Wald two-pack in Hasbro's latest line. "Where's Kitster?" he demands. ***Jimmy then asks fans attending Celebration VI to request a Kitster action figure whenever a Hasbro representative is on a panel that features an audience Q&A. More specifically, Jimmy suggests that listeners make the request to Hasbro's Derryl DePriest. ***On last week's show, Jimmy made a similar suggestion, but he also said that fans should try placing Kitster bumper stickers on DePriest's car. As it turns out, DePriest heard Jimmy's comments last week, and in an email to the hosts, he said that such efforts would have "the opposite effect." Hearing this, Jimmy retracts his bumper sticker suggestion. *Billy Dee Quote of the Week **Billy Dee was recently ambushed by a TMZ video crew. TMZ asked him about, among other things, his real name (William December Williams). *Star Wars in Pop Culture **The NBC show ''30 Rock featured a Star Wars reference in its Leap Day episode. While Liz Lemon (played by Tina Fey) is insulting her nerdy friend, she compares him to herself and says that she wrote lyrics to the Cantina Band song from A New Hope. Jimmy wonders if a 30 Rock writer heard friend of The ForceCast Bethany Hamilton singing her lyrics to the Cantina song at Celebration IV and decided to incorporate it into the show. **Chewbacca made an appearance in a fake movie trailer (for "Movie: The Movie") on Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show. At one point in the trailer, actress Kate Beckinsale is seen in bed with the Wookiee. She is suggestively covered by the sheets and she tells Chewbacca, "I needed that...now get out!" *Headline News **The 84th Academy Awards featured several connections to Star Wars: ***Tom Kane, the voice of Yoda and so much more on The Clone Wars, did the announcing for the Oscars broadcast. ***The traditional movie montage featured a scene from A New Hope. ***Warwick Davis (Wicket in Episode VI) appeared in the video for Best Makeup. ***One of the nominees in another category mentioned that he was a Star Wars fan and that his father bought him several SW pillow cases. ***Actress Rose Bryne (Dormé in Episode III) took a shot of vodka during the show when the name "Scorsese" was mentioned; this was apparently part of an in-joke with her Bridesmaids co-stars. ***Actor Ben Kingsley presented an honorary Oscar to James Earl Jones during a separate, pre-taped ceremony. Jones said that he felt "gobsmacked" after receiving the award. ***Natalie Portman, who recently gave birth to her first child, presented the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Later, E! News noticed that Portman was sporting a wedding band, leading to speculation that she and Benjamin Millepied had secretly wed. **Thanks to its 3D re-release, The Phantom Menace hit the $1 billion mark at the global box office this week. It is the first Star Wars film to reach that milestone (although A New Hope sits at $1.394 billion after adjusting for inflation). **In [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/george-lucas-star-wars-interview-288523 an interview with The Hollywood Reporter], George Lucas said, "Changes movies are not unusual — I mean, most movies when they release them they make changes. But somehow, when I make the slightest change, everybody thinks it’s the end of the world." Jason comments that Lucas sounded a little defensive. When the interviewer from The Hollywood Reporter asked Lucas about the "Who shot first?" controversy, Lucas replied, "It’s not a religious event. I hate to tell people that. It’s a movie, just a movie." Jason says that Lucas' comments remind him of how William Shatner once told Star Trek fans to calm down. **George Lucas will be profiled on the Science Channel series Prophets of Science Fiction" on March 7th at 10pm. **''The Clone Wars is adding Dengar to its list of OT cameos in its next episode, "Bounty", airing on Friday, March 2nd (the day that this podcast goes live). The controversial element of this news, at least according to Jason, is that Simon Pegg will be voicing Dengar. Pegg, who played Scotty in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot, "loathes the Prequels," according to Jason. Jimmy adds, "He goes out of his way to pee in the Prequel pool." Jason then plays audio of Pegg trashing the Prequels, especially Episode I, in an interview released last month. Jimmy criticizes Pegg's comments about Episode I's "simple characters" and its introduction of midi-chlorians. *The Outrageous Unthinkable Stories of the Week **A man wearing a Darth Vader mask attacked a Florida Highway Patrol trooper. The 28-year-old man was then arrested on charges of officer battery and resisting an arrest. The incident happened at a construction site at 2:45am. Jason and Jimmy trade jokes connecting the arrest to famous movie scenes involving Darth Vader (and even some about Yoda). **A man in Portland, Oregon was arrested after allegedly assaulting three people with a blue lightsaber at a Toys "R" Us. This incident happened at 9:50pm, leading Jason to ask, "Is Toys "R" Us even open at 9:50?" Jimmy speculates that it could have happened during the holiday season, when most stores are open later. According to the police report, officers couldn't take the man into custody immediately because he kept swinging the toy lightsaber at them. He even deflected one of the officers' taser wires with the weapon. **A man wearing a Chewbacca mask was involved in a West Palm Beach, FL shooting. The news reports stated that, like in the Star Wars films, Chewbacca was the sidekick and getaway driver. The shooting, in which no one was injured, occurred in a residential area. Significant quotes *"I don't know how much longer I can carry on this torch." -- Jimmy on the long campaign to get a Kitster action figure from Hasbro. Audible.com Sponsorship *Visit AudiblePodcast.com/TFN for a free audiobook download.